Arin Hanson
Arin Joseph Hanson (born January 6, 1987), also known by his Internet pseudonym Egoraptor, is an American Internet personality, animator, cartoonist, comedian, voice actor and songwriter. He is known for his Internet animations, as well as being the co-founder and co-star of the popular YouTube Let's Play webseries Game Grumps and one third of the video game-based parody musical trio Starbomb. Hanson has created numerous animated web series on his Egoraptor YouTube channel, including The Awesome Series, in which he parodies various video game franchises, including Pokémon, Metal Gear, Ninja Gaiden, and Final Fantasy, as well as for Sequelitis, a series of animated video essays in which he comedically and critically compares the quality of a video game and one of its sequels. He has also done voice acting for various shows such as Rick and Morty, Mighty Magiswords and Cyanide & Happiness, and video games such as Dragon Age: Inquisition and Detective Grimoire. He regularly collaborates with Ninja Sex Party, a musical comedy duo consisting of his Game Grumps and Starbomb partners Dan Avidan and Brian Wecht, providing guest vocals for their albums and appearing in their videos. Career Animation Hanson first joined Newgrounds under the name of "Egoraptor" on September 16, 2001. After joining, he submitted his first Awesome animation, "Metal Gear Awesome," on February 23, 2006.4 Hanson went on to upload various comedic video game-related animations, as well as four separate animated webseries (of which he then uploaded to YouTube); Awesome, short animated videos that parody video games, Lemon 'n Bill, a comedic series in which an anthropomorphic bullet and lemon get trapped within video game worlds, Girlchan in Paradise, a parody of shōnen anime, and Sequelitis, a series in which Hanson compares a video game and its sequel along with minor animations throughout the video.5 Hanson was also an early storyboard artist on the show Axe Cop. Due to the success of "Metal Gear Awesome," Hanson was approached by MTV to produce animated shorts in the style of "Metal Gear Awesome" for MTV's online video gaming show, The G-Hole.6 MTV gave Hanson four guidelines: the shorts must be poorly drawn, the shorts must have violence, the shorts must have swearing, and the shorts must be 30–40 seconds long. MTV also restricted him from submitting these movies to anywhere but The G-Hole, a restriction which Hanson constantly fought believing that all of his fans should have easy access to his work.7 He went on to create 1 to 3 Awesome episodes a month for The G-Hole before the show was put on hold and eventually canceled. Awesome continues online, on Hanson's YouTube channel. In 2011, Hanson provided the animation for the unreleased game JForce: Unstoppable. The game was set for release in 2012 with a Kickstarter to help fund the project,8 however the project was unsuccessful having only raised $1,441 of its $10,000 goal.9 Voice Acting In 2006, Hanson provided the voice of Bruce Banner in the video game Marvel: Ultimate Alliance as part of a competition held by Activision. His voice went ultimately unused and the character was played by Robin Atkin Downes, though VGFacts, Hanson's own website, and the credits of the game claim that his voice was used in the Wii port.10 In 2009, Hanson provided the voice for the character John Gore in the video game Minigore,11 and later reprised the role in the 2011 remake of Death Rally.12 In 2012, Hanson provided his voice for the game Detective Grimoire, a Kickstarter project which was successfully funded on August 3, 2012.13 Hanson has also provided his voice for Dragon Age: Inquisition, Target Acquired, Red vs. Blue, Cyanide & Happiness, and Rick & Morty. Game Grumps In late July 2012,16 Hanson and his colleague Jon Jafari, known for his video game critiquing webseries, JonTron,17 created a joint YouTube show, called Game Grumps. On this show, both Hanson and Jafari played video games that were typically retro or nostalgic in style.18 In late June 2013, just under a year after the show's inception, Jafari left Game Grumps to focus on his own channel and was replaced by Dan Avidan of the band Ninja Sex Party,19 who continues to work on the show to date. Apart from the YouTube series, Game Grumps moved to live performances at Hollywood Improv in late March 2016.20 Completely sold out, the event led to future performances in New York and other locations on the East Coast. Collaborations In February 2012, Hanson appeared as a contestant on the Sony game show, The Tester, during its third season, as a community-voted contestant, but was eliminated in the third episode after being accused of using the show to promote himself.21 When asked about his experience, and whether or not he would do it again, he replied negatively.22 Many defend Arin Hanson, saying that The Tester used his popularity to get more views on Sony's YouTube channel, and that the judges were unfair to him. Hanson appeared as a contestant in the third season of the dance competition webseries Dance Showdown, alongside professional dancer, Maxine Hupy.23 Hanson was announced the winner of the season.24 Hanson has also done narration work for several episodes of Did You Know Gaming?,25 a webseries dedicated to video game trivia, including episodes covering Star Fox, Grand Theft Auto, Super Mario, Mega Man, Pokémon and Kirby. He also talked about the development of Jurassic Park on the show's spin-off Did You Know Movies, on MatPat's channel "The Film Theorists." Besides providing additional work for online series on YouTube and Newgrounds, Hanson has been featured in several videos for the website ScrewAttack, including a collaboration with James Rolfe and Keith Apicary.26 In 2008, Hanson worked together with Ross O'Donovan on the animated webseries Gamer Tonight where he provided the voice of the host, which was broadcast on the Australian television show Good Game. Music In 2013, Hanson provided vocals for the track "Knight in Shining Armour" by Dougal & Gammer released as part of the compilation Clubland X-Treme Hardcore 9. In 2013, Hanson, along with Game Grumps co-host and Ninja Sex Party singer-songwriter Leigh Daniel Avidan and instrumentalist Brian Wecht, formed the band Starbomb. They released their first album, eponymously named Starbomb in December 2013. Starbomb went on to release their second album one year later December 2014, titled Player Select. On April 15, 2014, FAT REFUND, a rap song, was released on the channel StamperTV, a collaboration between several animators and voice actors including Rice Pirate, Marc M., Stamper, and Hanson himself. In early 2016, Hanson performed with Starbomb at their first live event at SXSW to positive reception. Other Work In 2013, Hanson made an appearance on the webseries Hot Pepper Gaming. He reviewed Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate after eating a habanero pepper. In 2014, Hanson returned to the show, reviewing the game Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes whilst eating a Bhut Jolokia. Hanson will be a playable character in the game Hex Heroes for the Wii U. He will also be providing voiceover work for his character. He was also going to be voicing a character in the fighting game Beast's Fury, before the game was cancelled on 9 January 2016. Hanson appeared as a guest in the Nintendo World Championships 2015. He came in 5th overall, losing in the third round of Balloon Fight. Personal life Hanson lives in Glendale, California with his wife Suzanne "Suzy" Berhow who is a regular on Game Grumps spin offs like Grumpcade, Steam Train, Hunting Monsters and Table Flip. Hanson also acts as the creative director of the online marketplace, 1 Shirt. His father, Lloyd Hanson, is a musician, and runs Old Farts With Guitars, discussing his "lifelong affair with music." His mother, Maurette Hanson, runs the Healing Horse Therapy Center. It is dedicated to providing on-site equine-assisted therapeutic and psychotherapeutic wellness programming to combat veterans, survivors of military sexual trauma, special needs persons, and all individuals needing a safe and nurturing environment to heal from mental, physical and emotional challenges. Credits Film * Press Start - Forest Guardian (voice) * Press Start 2 Continue - Mug-Wug (voice) * Sonic - E-100 (voice) * Cyborg Assassin: Legend of the Space Ninja - Priest (voice) * The Skip Rodgers Movie - Lord John (Voice) * The Girl from Dinosaur Island - Ptero (voice) * My Little Pony: The Movie (2023 Film) - Swirly Star (voice) * Tiny Christmas 2 - Owen * Lily And The Chipmunks - Alvin (voice) Television * ADHD - Gardener/Man (voice) - 2 episodes * Rick and Morty - Wedding Singer/Cyborgs (voice) - Episode: "The Wedding Squanchers" * Mighty Magiswords - Gateaux/Zonq/Delivery Man Steve/Additional voices Various episodes * Abbysworld - Sparky (voice) * My Little Pony (2025 TV Series) - Swirly Star (voice) * Hey! Mickey Mouse! - Dale (voice) Web series * Awesome - Various voices * Press Start Adventures - Various voices * Lemon 'n Bill - Lemon/Bill (voice) * Eddsworld - Super Guy (voice) * Cyanide & Happiness Shorts - Ted Bear/Cliff Miller (voice) - 3 episodes * Girlchan in Paradise - Various voices - 3 episodes; co-creator * Sequelitis - Himself (voice) - 4 episodes; creator * Space Ninja - Priest (voice) - Episode: "Shadows Fall, the Temple Burns" * asdfmovie - Various voices - Episode: "asdfmovie4" * PONY.MOV - Rarity/Pinkie Pie (voice) - 3 episodes * Game Grumps - Himself - 4,000+ episodes; co-creator and co-host * The Tester - Himself - 9 episodes * Did You Know Gaming? - Himself (voice) - 7 episodes * Demo Reel - Himself - Episode: "Lost in Translation (Bromance Version)" * Hot Pepper Gaming - Himself - 3 episodes * Backwards Cat - Vet (voice) - Episode: "Backwards Cat Goes to the Vet" * VGFacts Five Trivia - Himself (voice) Episode: "5 No More Heroes Trivia" * Nacho Punch - Various voices - Episode: "Tokyo Ghostbusters - The 1980s Anime" * URealms Live - Penwar Lockis (voice) - Episode: "The Nuren Campaign" * Did You Know Movies? - Himself (voice) - Episode: "Jurassic Park and the Soggy T-Rex" * Red vs. Blue - Fed/Cobb (voice) - Episodes: "Temple of the Key" and "Grey vs Gray" * JonTron's StarCade - Himself/Darth Vader - Episode: "Star Wars Holiday Special" * Good Mythical Morning - Himself * Scare PewDiePie - Himself * MatPat's Game Lab - Himself * Bee and PuppyCat - Elder Squat Bird (voice) - 2 episodes * Good Game - Ryland * My Little Pony Plays - Fluttershy/Twilight Sparkle/Pinkie Pie/Applejack/Rainbow Dash/Rarity/Butterfly Dazzle (voice) Shorts * Mickey Mouse - Dale (voice) Music videos * "T.M.N.T.S.O.N.G." - Keith Apicary - Casey Jones * "Party of Three" - Ninja Sex Party - The DJ/Waiter No. 1 (voice) * "Dragon Slayer" - Ninja Sex Party - Dragon * "Attitude City" - Ninja Sex Party - 'Tude Bro * "Road Trip" - Ninja Sex Party - Himself * "6969" - Ninja Sex Party - Head Dick Elder * "Eating Food In The Shower" - Ninja Sex Party - Mariachi Performer * Video games * Minigore - John Gore * Death Rally - John Gore * Detective Grimoire - Agent Folder * Dragon Age: Inquisition - Additional voices * Chocolate Raiders - Chocolate Raider/King * Move or Die - Announcer * Target Acquired - Officer Spike * Accounting - The Bomb Video Games * Hex Heroes - Himself * Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator - Joseph * The Cyanide & Happiness Adventure Game - Ted Bear * Yoshi's Great Adventure - Yoshi (voice) * Splatoon 3 - Inkling Girl, Inkling Boy (voice) See also List of YouTube personalities References Category:Non-Fanon Category:Voice actors Category:Actors Category:American male voice actors Category:American male film actors Category:1987 births Category:My Little Pony: The Movie (2023) Voice Actors Category:My Little Pony: The Movie (2023)